


time ≠ water

by isadorator



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Existential Angst, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Legal Drama, Politics, Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, Worldbuilding, but let's be real if i expanded on this it would become a slowburn ot3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 00:03:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7954243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isadorator/pseuds/isadorator
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which the second Ladybug does not disappear at the end of Chronogirl/Timebreaker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	time ≠ water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kickassfu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kickassfu/gifts).



> The prompt 'water' was sent to my ladrien blog by my dear, lovely Maf, but you will quickly notice this has... nothing to do with water...................;;; ANYWAY, Hallie talked about how great time travel is in chat and [I remembered her plotbunny](http://clairelutra.tumblr.com/post/149092237445/reeeeeeally-self-indulgent-things-i-shouldnt-be) and started thinking about how it could be possible, the logistics of it, and then it spiralled out of control from there. Like is always the case for me orz;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Here are two facts about the universe.

One:

Time, people like to imagine, is something material. Like water flowing in a river, like the flap of a butterfly's wings. This is to help them understand it, but it is wrong.

Time is math, pure and simple. Something exists and then something happens. All the elements of the past make up all of the elements of the present. 1 + 1 = 2.

Travelling forward is as easy as existing one second after the other. Travelling backwards is easy too, if you have the energy and the equipment. You shuffle yourself to the other side of the equation, make yourself part of the past instead of the present.

This changes the terms of the equation. The past becomes the present and the present becomes the future and the future is nothing but possibility.

1 + 1 + 1 ≠ 2. It can never be 2, because there is a new variable to the equation.

The old equation no longer exists. The old solution no longer exists.

But you do.

Two:

The kwami of creation can create. She can restore.

She can not destroy.

  


* * *

  


When Tikki's swarm of magical ladybugs finish their work, there are two Alix Kubdels sprawled on the concrete and two Ladybugs frozen in the middle of a fist bump.

The two Alixes swear loudly and scramble away from each other. The two Ladybugs slowly drop their hands, paling the longer they stare at each other.

"Th-the cake—" one stammers and the other one shakes her head.

"You go, talk to—"

"Yeah, so you'll take care of—?"

"Of course, it's my— _our_ job—"

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" the Alixes scream in unison.

  


* * *

  


Weeks pass. The world learns that time travel is possible and comes with consequences.

Tikki is not human, so she folds in on herself, a deity with two aspects springing from one soul, two bodies used as avatars to strengthen and guide her mortal champions. Nothing changes for Tikki, really, except now she has a safety net: if one set of her Miraculous is compromised or destroyed, she can sever her connection to it before it does her harm, shedding it like a too-small exoskeleton.

Despite the media circus, the second Alix is immediately taken in by the Kubdels. She has no legal identity or guardians, so they hire a lawyer and put together the paperwork, asking the government to give her the name she chose ("Artemis sounds cool"), to adopt her into their family, and to grant her French citizenship.

But modern law does not take into account the existence of magic and there is a certain faction of Paris' movers and shakers who do not trust someone apparently made by it. M. Kubdel takes a sabbatical as the case gets dragged into court, newspaper headlines eagerly detailing the legal drama as it stops being about Artemis and starts being about politics.

Still, Alix always returns to school with two sets of completed homework that become less and less similar, which Mme Bustier carefully marks and comments on, her encouraging notes scribbled in red ink on the back.

The public only catches glimpses of the new Ladybug during akuma attacks, as she never stays behind for interviews, but they notice the differences immediately.

The colours of her costume are inverted, red spots on black, and her pixie cut doesn't allow for pigtails.

  


* * *

  


Chat Noir's transformation drops just as he reaches the next rooftop, which means it's _Adrien_ who slips on the shingles in the dark, crashing head-first into a chimney and nearly breaking his nose on the brickwork.

"Who's there?!" someone shouts from above, drowning out Adrien's muttered curse.

Plagg is already huddled in Adrien's overshirt and too exhausted from the earlier akuma attack to help him. So, with trepidation, Adrien peeks up.

Ladybug stands on the chimney that Adrien is now intimately acquainted with, short hair sticking out wildly from her head, yoyo held ready in her hand. She slumps when she recognizes him, tension gone as she curls in on herself.

"Adrien? What are you doing here?" she asks. Her voice is hoarse, eyes and nose puffed red, and Adrien realizes that she's been _crying_.

He struggles to come up with an answer as she drops down beside him, using the motion of straightening himself to think.

"I like... coming up here. On the roofs, I mean. To think," says Adrien, because it's not a lie, exactly, just not why he's up here right now. Ladybug sniffs, wiping an eye with the heel of her hand, and Adrien's chest clenches, squeezing out the words, "Are you alright?"

Ladybug jolts and takes a shuddering breath. "I'm... I'm—f-fine, I'm... I..."

She presses a hand to her mouth, screwing her eyes shut in a futile attempt to stop the tears from leaking out. A muffled sob escapes her, shaking her entire frame, and Adrien's heart breaks.

His lady (and they're _his_ , they're both _his lady_ , even if the one from his timeline changed her name to Coccinelle, so that Ladybug could keep at least one thing from her old life)... his lady needs help, _desperately_.

All Adrien can think to do is place a hand on her shoulder, say her name in the gentlest tone he can manage, but that's enough for Ladybug to fling herself at him. She throws her arms around his waist, burying her face in his shoulder, and Adrien holds her as she falls apart.

Ladybug cries and cries and _cries_ , her tears and snot soaking through to his skin, full of her grief, her pain, her anger and frustration and everything else she must have bottled up since she arrived here.

They stand there even as Ladybug exhausts herself, her ugly sobs receding into slow, heavy breaths. 

Adrien knows she's not asleep, because she's still shaking against him. Haltingly, he reaches up one hand and smooths it over her hair.

She doesn't pull away, so Adrien keeps doing it.

Ladybug sniffs and lifts her head enough to rest her chin on his shoulder. "My mother used to do this, whenever Chloé bullied me enough to make me cry," she confesses.

Adrien pauses his... well, it's petting, at this point. "Chloé Bourgeois?"

"Yeah."

That explains why both Ladybug and Coccinelle disliked her so much.

"Should you be telling me this?" asks Adrien, because, while he's always eager to learn more about Ladybug, this is the first personal detail she's ever divulged to _either_ of his identities.

"I shouldn't be able to tell you _anything_ ," she says. "I shouldn't even _exist_."

Adrien stiffens and pulls away, hands moving to grasp her shoulders. He tries to catch her eyes, but they're determinedly focused on the ground.

"You don't mean that," he says. _Pleads_.

"I do."

It's the flat, dull tone of her voice, like it's been wrung of any emotion, that scares Adrien the most.

He and Coccinelle thought Ladybug had been doing okay living with Master Fu. Or as well as she could be, considering the situation.

"Every time either of us use Miraculous Cure, I keep hoping it'll take me away." Her words pour out of her, filling Adrien with worry and guilt, wondering how he didn't notice Ladybug's feelings. "That I can go back _home_. I want to see Mama and Papa. I miss my friends..." She covers her face with her hands, the black material standing out against her ashen skin. "They're here, but I'm not supposed to be, they're not _mine_ , I can't be with anyone and no one wants me—"

" _I_ want you!" Adrien bursts out and that was the absolute _worst_ choice of words, but at least Ladybug is looking at him now, her hands falling away as her eyes nearly pop out of her head.

Something not unlike a squeak escapes her. Adrien tries to ignore the blush creeping up his face.

"Wait—that's—" _Words, Agreste, use them._ "I want you here. I'm glad you're here. I'm sorry that you can't... if you can't be with your friends, then... maybe I can be yours?" _Smooth._ "Your friend, I mean! I want to be friends! Let's be friends." _Stop saying friends. Just stop talking._

Adrien purses his lips, hoping against hope that he's doing better than the last time he tried this.

"... I can't tell you who I am," says Ladybug. Her gaze goes from stunned to piercing, which is still better than blank and hopeless. "It'll put both me and Coccinelle in danger."

"I don't mind," Adrien answers honestly. "With or without the mask, you're the same."

"Le Papillon will come after you, if he ever finds out."

"He's after everyone in Paris."

A light flush appears in her cheeks, lit by the streetlamps below. "I'll probably cry on you again. Mess up your shirt."

Adrien smiles and squeezes her shoulders.

"I'd be honoured if you trusted me that much," he replies. "Visit me any time you need to."

Ladybug stares at him mutely again before turning her head to the side. She reaches over to cover one of his hands with hers, her other arm still wrapped around him.

The soft, shy smile she directs to their joined hands is the first one he's seen from her tonight. It's one that leaves Adrien feeling both weak and strong, like he could do anything, if it was for the sake of that smile.

"How can I resist an offer like that?" she murmurs.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, I wrote some nsfw futurefic of the OT3 just because I... love the idea too much...........................
> 
> If you're interested in reading them, you can find them as part of [my fills for MLNSFWeek](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8131313) or just check out the [#love squared](http://isadorator.tumblr.com/tagged/love-squared) tag on my writing tumblr /o/

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [that girl's in love with you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8041615) by [clairelutra (exosolarmoon)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/exosolarmoon/pseuds/clairelutra)
  * [Anastomosis](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152981) by [joisbishmyoga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/joisbishmyoga/pseuds/joisbishmyoga)
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